Granular materials such as dishwashing detergents are typically packaged in rectangular paperboard packages. The packages are generally provided with a dispensing orifice on the side of the container immediately below the top of the package. Currently, measuring cups and similar devices are not needed for dishwashing detergents. To ensure that the correct amount of detergent will be used the dishwashers themselves have receptacles that show consumers where to pour the product and how much to use. Such receptacles usually take the form of a cup type device attached to the door of the machine. The consumer pours the product into the cup-type device until the product reaches the top or a marked fill line.
Recently, due to advances in soap technology, products such as dishwashing detergents have become more concentrated, thereby allowing the use of a smaller volume of product than used before. Because the soap is more concentrated the receptacles on existing dishwashers used to measure the correct amount of detergent are too large. Therefore, filling the receptacle as usual results in too much soap being placed in the dishwasher which is wasteful. It therefore became apparent that measuring devices are now needed in order to place the proper amount of soap in a dishwashing machine. It is preferable that the measuring device be integral with or attached to the detergent package. This ensures that the measuring device is always readily available when the product is used.
Examples of packages having measuring cups integral therewith can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,820,491 issued to Crompston on Jan. 21, 1958 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,693 issued to Diaz on Feb. 10, 1981. Both of these patents describe what can be referred to as a corner cap measuring device. That is the package comprises a carton and a measuring device in the shape of a prism and having dimensions conforming to a corner of the package. The corner cap then easily form fits over a corner of the carton for storage. The corner cap is usually marked with a fill line to show how much product the user is to pour into the corner cap.
A problem associated with these corner caps has been to provide a practical means for securing the corner cap onto the carton so that it will not fall off during shipping and handling. One method used in the past is to have the side walls of the corner cap inwardly biased so that they grip the sides of the package. However, this means that the side walls must then somehow be moved outwardly to place the cap onto the carton during assembly. Because the corner cap does not easily fit over the corner of the carton, this method of securing the cap to the carton slows down the assembly of the package and is not suited for mass manufacturing.
Another method used in the past to secure the corner cap to the carton has been to tape the corner cap onto the package. The tape is removed and discarded by the consumer prior to its first use. However, when using this method the consumer has no way to re-secure the corner cap to the carton after first using the product. This allows the cap to detach itself easily from the package and become lost.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a package for granular materials having a corner cap wherein the corner cap is securely retained to the carton prior to first use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a package wherein the corner cap can easily be re-secured to the carton after first use.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such package that can be assembled quickly and is inexpensive to manufacture.
The aforementioned and other objects of the invention will become more apparent hereinafter.